Kayak adventures: Life's an adventure for Kalispell kayak instructor

Ann Clark waited until later in life to start her adventures.

Clark, 66, took up kayaking at age 53 and hasn’t looked back. She began taking kayaking courses from Bobbi Gilmore at Flathead Valley Community College in 2000. “I wanted to be like Bobbi,” Clark said of her mentor.

Eleven years later, Clark took over teaching Gilmore’s courses and started her own kayak instruction business.

It’s been an adventure for the former newspaper reporter and paginator. Clark started working at the Daily Inter Lake in 1979 as a typist and worked her way up from there. She retired in 1996 the same day as her husband, Addison, Kalispell’s former police chief.

One and a half years later, Clark started doing missions work with Habitat for Humanity and Catholic Charities. She went to Honduras, Costa Rica and Bolivia.

“Everywhere I’ve gone I’ve also kayaked,” she said.

Her husband worries about her sometimes, Clark said, but that hasn’t stopped her. “He’s concerned that I won’t come back sometimes,” she said. Clark explained that Addison had his adventure earlier in life. He was a jet pilot in Vietnam and then he served 24 years with Kalispell Police. While he was adventuring, Clark was busy raising the couple’s four children. “I had twins before I was 21,” she said.

Clark, who also has six grandchildren, has plenty of adventure stories to tell. The group she was traveling with in Bolivia got thrown out of the country after the stock market crashed in 2008 after diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Bolivia were severed. In order to leave the country, Clark’s group had to walk across a bridge into Argentina. “We weren’t scared,” she said. However, she noted her credit card was canceled because she didn’t notify the company that she would be traveling in Argentina. “My friend loaned me money so I could fly back,” she said.

Clark has kayaked all over the world, including the Inland Passage in the Pacific coastal region west of Canada. She plans on traveling to Alaska in August. Belize and Greece are other countries she’s visited.

“I go to the coast and burn up the proceeds from my instruction” classes, she said.

Clark’s business, Montana Sea Kayak Adventures LLC, provides bird tours on Whitefish and Echo lakes.

Her classes include one hour of instruction in a conference room, two hours in a pool and five hours on Echo Lake. She likes to teach students on Echo Lake because it’s calmer than Flathead, which can get rough and choppy at times.

“I make sure they know they can get out if the boat tips over,” she said. “I get rid of the fear.”

She also teaches students how to roll a kayak and reenter it in deep water and how to rescue someone.

She teaches in June and July and goes on adventures in August and September.

During the off season, Clark spends time volunteering at her church, Community Congregational in Kalispell, and exercising three days a week at the Summit. There Clark does a high-speed workout known as the Parisi. “It helps with upper body strength and endurance.” This comes in handy when she has to carry a kayak or tow people, which she often has had to do.

What does her husband think about all this? “He takes good care of the dogs and tells me to keep my life insurance paid up,” she said, smiling.

For more information, call Clark at 270-4221.